Capitalization tips every writer should remember

Many people uppercase the first letter of a word to provide emphasis—or because they don’t know any better. Here are some guidelines on when to hit the shift key.

By Bethaney WallaceApril 10, 2013

SHARE

In kindergarten we learned to capitalize our first names. It’s a proper noun, our teachers said, so it gets a big letter. The same went for our last names, street addresses, holidays, or the beginning of a sentence, no matter how short.

At some point in the next several decades of our life, we forgot the rules. (Or, at least, a majority of the population forgot.) People began capitalizing words at random. Verbs, insignificant nouns, even pronouns got the big-letter treatment.

For whatever reason, these words have been crowned, throwing all caution to the proper linguistic wind.

No one thinks to hire a copy editor.

The rules

Titles’ main words are capitalized.

I’m going to read “To Kill a Mockingbird,”one of my favorite books.

Only proper nouns get the big-guy treatment. This means names, holidays, and the first word of a complete sentence.

Jan Brady lives on Groovy Lane in Hippyville, Fla. She has a brother named Peter, with whom she likes to celebrate Arbor Day. They also enjoy eating applesauce on Tuesdays.

Common nouns should be lowercase; commercial businesses are the biggest offenders of this error.